Fire Forged
by CrazyHoltzy
Summary: Before Patty could move, and before Erin could think, Holtz launched herself after Abby, swan diving, guns in hand, face first into the rapidly closing portal. - What started as a quick rewrite of the portal scene that got out of hand.


It was silent.

Sirens were blaring round them, the Mercado Hotel was rebuilding itself from the top down, the red portal was screaming, but for the three Ghostbusters, it was silent. For hours. Not for hours. It couldn't have been more than 2 seconds between Rowan grabbing Abby and disappearing into the portal, Holtz snapped out of her shock, screaming after Abby. The sound of the engineer screaming with such emotion pulled the other two Ghostbusters out of their blinkered vision, in time to watch the young engineer throw her proton gun back onto her back, and pull two guns from the proton pack, and sprint full speed at the portal.

Before Patty could move, and before Erin could think, Holtz launched herself after Abby, swan diving, guns in hand, face first into the rapidly closing portal.

Erin yelled. Then Erin ran. Patty ran too. Not to the portal, to Erin, to stop her jumping. Patty thanked whoever was listing that Erin was so small, hadn't the energy to fight against Patty as she weakly tried to push her way passed Patty, yelling unintelligibly and crying. Grabbing the smaller woman by the shoulders, with one quick jolt, Erin looked at Patty, crazed.

Patty looked into Erin's eyes and saw pure energy. It was terrifying, more terrifying than one of Holtzmann's inventions. She'd just witnessed one of her friends pulled into the portal and another freely jump in. There was no way Patty was letting the only other one go jumping in after them.

"For scientists you are sure irrational." Patty leaned down, pulling Erin with her, not trusting Erin to stay put if she let go, and picked the winch off the floor, pulling Erin back up to full height and holding it up. "You cannot go jumping into hell portals unaided with no way of getting back. Maybe that's not science but it is common sense!" Although Patty couldn't blame Holtz for that, if the 27 fires that had "randomly" started around Holtzmann's desk were anything to go by. The engineer did seem to lack the connection that made her think before acting, but that's what made Holtz Holtz.

Erin, breath quick and chest rising and falling too fast, the verge of a panic attack setting in, grabbed a second winch off the floor after Patty let go, and the duo tied them around themselves, and with a brief look at eachother, they both looked forward, drew their proton guns, and ran, side by side, towards the portal that had already claimed two of their friends. It must have only been a few seconds since Holtz disappeared into the glowing red maw. And now they were jumping too. No woman gets left behind.

Patty couldn't say she'd been truly terrified before. She'd come close recently. The ghost in the subway tunnel scared her more than she had been in her life, she thought there would be nothing scarier. Watching the equipment smashed to pieces where Erin and Holtz were a couple of seconds beforehand scared her too, more than the ghost. The ghost was dead, her friends could die. It didn't occur to her that the Ghostbusters could disappear before they've even completed a month of busting ghosts. Never really occurred to her that one of them could so easily die. Until Holtz was hanging out of a window and Abby was letting go of her neck. Then it all happened in slow motion. She'd never been so scared in her life. Holtz's life was in danger and for the first time she realised just how dangerous the job was.

Of course, that was all before she went bungee jumping into some hell portal in the middle of New York. That truly scared her. Not the fact that she could die, not the fact her friends could die, but the fact that if they didn't come back, countless others will. They may have succeeded in closing the portal, but Patty doubted that Holtz could make that many nuclear reactors if anyone were to try replicating Rowan's work. And Holtz definitely couldn't make nuclear reactions freefalling through the portal.

The portal felt wrong. Even after everything they've seen and felt, the portal didn't feel right at all. Maybe the fact there was almost no sound. Rowan screaming as he falls, Erin yelling for Abby, Holtz laughing, her own heartbeat thumping in her ears.

She had a purpose. That purpose was to save her friends. They may be scientists, but without her, they'd fall apart. She may not be a scientist, but she's the smartest one of them all. Without her, they'd be dead. And she wasn't going to let that happen. Wordlessly, she charged up her laser, Erin beside her doing the same. They took aim together, proton beams frying Rowan's hand.

He screamed.

He let go.

Abby was now freefalling. Patty had no idea how far they'd travelled, by the winch wasn't going to hold them forever.

"Go for Abby!" Patty yelled through the silence, the words drowning out around her, but travelling far enough for Erin to hear, and she directed towards Abby. Patty set her sights on the freefalling engineer. Laughing. Still shooting ghosts that tumbled past. Patty smiled. Even in the face of certain death, her yellow spectacled friend, was crazy. And she loved her. She loved all of them. Abby, impulsive, bossy, Pisces. Hilarious. Kind, loving, perfect Abby. And Erin, prickly at first, only to show that she has the largest heart and cares about everyone. She cares for everyone's safety. She bought Holtz a 6 pack of heavy duty fire extinguishers, and laughed when they all got used up in an hour, and went to buy some more. Erin, never mad Erin. Holtz may be insane with a few screws loose here and there, but the screws in her inventions are perfect. Patty didn't want to know what goes on in Holtz's mind, but she was glad it did. Holtz may be insane, not caring about the boundaries of safety, but she wouldn't want anyone else in charge of their weapons. Unstable Holtz and her unstable inventions was more than Patty would ask for.

She reached out for Holtz's proton pack, her hand wrapping around the handle on the top, pulling the tiny engineer towards her, wrapping her other hand around her waist, giving her enough space to keep shooting, but enough grasp to hold her tight when they get pulled back. Across the portal, Erin was doing the same. Erin and Abby, locked in a heart to heart. She smiled.

And then all the wind was knocked out of her lungs and the four of them wheezed as they got pulled sharply back. Flying back to New York, crazy scientist in hand, Patty had never felt so happy. Nothing compared to this moment, to know they were all okay. She'd give away all of her employee of the month plaques instantly if it meant her scientists would never get hurt. And they were hers. They were hers to love, to remind them to eat if they hadn't, remind them to go home and rest, pull the blanket over Holtz when she falls asleep under her work table, to turn off the lights when Kevin doesn't know how to. They're a mismatch family, she couldn't dispute that, but she sure could say she loved her mismatched family.

So when they flew through the doors of the Mercado onto the street outside and military officers helped them onto their feet, they rushed to eachother, the whole group hugging it out, jumping up and down and whooping. They saved New York. They saved New York and lived through it.

"Hold on, why ya'll got white hair?"

* * *

 **Because why wouldn't our insane little engineer jump head first into a portal to hell, without thinking, for her friend?**

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 **Tell me what you thought!**


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